• Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, June 1932, when every available vehicle was chartered.
• Bann Drainage Scheme; buses transported workers to and from Kilrea and the income was £193 in 1933, and £873 in 1934.
• Clubs and Associations, e.g. Coleraine Academical Institution school sports teams were transported to various destinations.

STAFF

On the take-over date (3rd December 1935) there were 29 employees on the records, even though most of the temporary staff were not working during the winter months. (see appendix F). Drivers appeared to be flexible in their duties, operating buses, lorries and taxis as required. In the winter months, as well as maintenance, they carried out conversion of redundant charabancs to lorries.

I am not certain regarding the offers of employment made by the N. I. R. T. B.

• S. S. Henry was offered employment, but did not accept.
• W. Dunlop, mechanic, transferred to the N. I. R. T. B. depot in Coleraine.
• Drivers; it appears that five transferred to the N. I. R. T. B..
• Conductors; some may have transferred.
• Two female office staff were invited to attend the N. I. R. T. B. headquarters in Belfast for interview, I have no further information.
• Thomas Johnston (the clerk) remained to keep records for car hire, taxis and S. S. Henry's market garden and farm business, which were developed after the take-over.

TICKETS

Only tour tickets (from the 1930s) have survived, examples are shown below.

Note the back of the ticket, free advertising!

STAFF

Advertising appeared in the local newspapers.

Booking offices: a kiosk at Portstewart Harbour, outside which was the tour advertising board now held in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum (photo on front page of this site).

Bookings could also be made at the garage office in Portstewart and at Miss Mackle's shop opposite Portrush railway station.

The function of the conductor/canvassers was to deliver tour posters to hotels and guest houses and in other words obtain custom.

TOUR PROGRAMMES

An example is shown below:

OTHER OPERATING COSTS

Item	Cost	Note
Motor insurance	£142 12s per annum (including the Irish Free State)	Cover was third party, fire and theft, with unlimited cover for passengers and public hire.
Employer's liability	£5 12s per annum
Fire on property	£7 1s 3d per annum
Petrol grade 1	1s 4d per gallon
Petrol grade 3	1s 1 3/4d per gallon

MOTOR TAXATION

Year	Vehicles
1933	3 buses under four months
	3 buses five/six months
	1 bus nine months
	1 bus twelve months
1934	1 bus three months
	6 buses four/six months
	1 bus ten months
1935	1 bus two months
	6 buses four/seven months
	2 buses ten months

Road tax was £24 15s for each bus for a full year. The PSV licence was £2 per vehicle per year.

PHOTOS

Peter Doherty's licensed premises and jaunting car.

Frizzell's waggonette in 1907

Berliet charabanc number 12 (IW 1379) at Portstewart harbour c. 1922.

Berliet charabanc number 12 (IW 1379) at Banagher Glen in 1925, with S. S. Henry driving it.

Two of the four Thornycroft charabancs owned are seen at the Crescent in Portstewart in 1923.

Dennis IW 3786 at the Promenade in 1930.

Leyland Cub IW 4221 at the Carrig-na-Cule Hotel in 1932.

Henry's Leyland Tiger TS5 IW 4235 is visible in the corner of this 1932 postcard view of Portstewart Harbour, with a Northern Counties Committee bus parked further along the road.

PORTSTEWART TRAMWAY COMPANY LIMITED

In 1855 a branch railway line was constructed from Coleraine to Portrush, skirting Portstewart a mile and a half to the north-west. A station was erected adjoining the local landlord's estate and named Cromore. Portrush was benefiting from the railway and in 1861 and an application was made by the Portstewart Tramway Company Ltd. to construct a tramway from Cromore station to Portstewart; however the landlord opposed this proposal. After a considerable time he agreed, giving the land free to build a railway of standard gauge (5 ft. 3 in.). Owing to the death of the landlord, the scheme was shelved until 1882, when a 3 ft. gauge line was constructed.

The tramway was the first roadside 3 ft. gauge steam tramway in Ireland to open, and 44 years later also the first to close. Initially the tramway was profitable, however in 1892 a mortgage holder requested repayment. This was not possible and S. R. Henry was appointed as receiver. A petition for winding up was presented and accordingly the company was offered for sale, the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway offered £2,100. The receiver confirmed that this would liquidate all claims and pay off the mortgages. The company was sold to the B. and N. C. R. on 1st June 1897. Considerable expenditure was incurred by the railway company, including a new locomotive. However in September 1925 a decision was made to close the tramway on 30th January 1926. A bus service was then provided by S. S. Henry.

OTHER BUS OPERATORS IN PORTSTEWART

REID.

No details known.

C. TINSLEY.

Had a confectionery/tobacconist shop on the Promenade. His buses may have been named the big nut and the wee nut.

PETER DOHERTY.

A publican, who also operated as Anchor Motor Services and had the following buses:

IW 2831 1926 Dennis 17 seater

IW 3040 1927 Dennis 18 seater

IW 3348 1928 Dennis 19 seater

He provided a half-hourly service between Portstewart and Coleraine, and his fleet was nicknamed canaries due to their yellow livery. The business was taken over by the N. C. C. in October 1929. His sister Maisie maintained she was the first female to hold a p. s. v. licence in Ulster.

A. FRIZZELL.

A general merchant in Portstewart, who operated the following vehicles:

XI 4659 1925 Morris 14 seater

IW 3115 1927 Morris 14 seater

IW 3371 1928 Chevrolet 14 seater

His vehicles had been used for tours and a shuttle service between Portstewart and Portrush during the summer since the mid-1920s. His business was acquired by the Northern Counties Committee on 17th February 1930.

NORTHERN COUNTIES COMMITTEE.

This railway company operated between Portstewart and Portrush, possibly after they acquired Frizzell's business. At 1st July 1932 the standard fares were 4d single and 6d return. On 1st January 1932 they took over the Portstewart to Portstewart station service from S. S. Henry.

VEHICLE OPERATORS IN NORTHERN IRELAND.

In 1932 the three railway companies, Belfast and County Down, Great Northern and Northern Counties Committee, formally asked the Government for the creation of a monopoly over road transport in Ulster. A report was to be prepared by Sir Felix J. Pole (former manager of the Great Western Railway) regarding the integration of road and rail transport in Northern Ireland. His proposals were accepted by the Government, and authority was given to the Road and Railway Transport Act of July 1935. Within six months of this date the Board issued vesting orders for the undertakings to be acquired.

On 1st October 1935 the three railway companies, together with the Belfast Omnibus Company and H. M. S. Catherwood Ltd., commonly referred to as the big five, handed over their vehicles and accepted the proposed offer of compensation. Most of the other operators also accepted the offer, but some of the remainder fought for a better deal, mainly for the goodwill element, and negotiated an acceptable settlement (details of the statistics required are shown in appendix G). Settlement was made on the depreciated cost of the assets plus the goodwill. Negotiations took place over a period of more than a year (details of the claim and settlement for S. S. Henry are shown in appendix H).

ARBITRATION.

In S. S. Henry's claim, a number of expert witnesses were called to present their cases, all their documented evidence has been retained. The only evidence from the N. I. R. T. B. was a letter from A. Rea (see Appendix I), presumably a manager or employee in Coleraine depot, to Major Speir, the General Manager and Secretary of the N. C. C. in Belfast.

ANECDOTES.

David Bacon, one of the Henry drivers who transferred to the N. I. R. T. B., was sent to Belfast to bring a double decker bus to Coleraine depot. On the journey home there was a low railway bridge on the approach to Templepatrick and David, who did not realise the restricted height of the bridge, kept to his own side of the road, and sliced the top off the bus. For some time afterwards it was called Bacon's Bridge!

LOADING PROBLEM.

In 1924 S. S. Henry went to Manchester and purchased NC 4903 from Pemberton of Manchester. When he arrived at the docks he found there was no equipment available to load the charabanc. He got two planks and laid them from the dock to the boat. When the tide raised the boat to the correct level he drove on board and journeyed home.

LOCAL COMMENT.

The late William Archibald wrote the following to me:

The average wages paid were good by the standards of the time, when an unskilled labourer was earning £1 per week. Having a skilled work-force must have added to the success of the enterprise. With the virtue of hindsight, the legislation which nationalised road transport was totally unnecessary. In an effort to regulate what the Government saw as the chaotic state of public transport, the baby was thrown out with the bath water. Many small operators of one or two buses were running on a shoestring, unable to afford either replacements or repairs. If the Government had not interfered, market forces would have insured that the smaller weaker undertakings would have been absorbed by the successful ones.

OVERCROWDING.

The following report appeared in the Belfast Telegraph dated August 3rd 1928:

COLERAINE MOTOR CASES

FINES FOR OVERCROWDING

District-Inspector Robinson summoned Bertie Symton, 5 Mark Street, Portrush, conductor, and H. M. S. Catherwood, owner, for permitting overcrowding in a bus. There were 46 passengers on the bus, which was licensed to carry 36. Symton was fined 25s and Catherwood 30s.

Same Complainant summoned John J. Doyle, 5 Mark Street, Portrush, conductor, and H. M. S. Catherwood, owner, for a similar offence. In this case there were 41 passengers, whereas the bus was licensed to carry 36. Doyle was fined 12s 6d and Catherwood 30s.

In a like case against Daniel McGowan, Coleraine Road, Portstewart, conductor, and Samuel S. Henry, Portstewart, owner, fines of 10s and 30s respectively were imposed. There were 21 people in the bus which was licensed to carry 17.

Joseph McLean, Ballyronan, Magherafelt, was fined £1 for using a motor-cycle without a driver's licence.

For a similar offence Archibald P. Reid was fined 7s 6d.

Thomas Millen, Lyle Hill, Templepatrick, was fined 2s 6d for driving a motor-car, the licence for which having expired on 1st July was not renewed.

Alex. Sharpe, 5 Mark Street, Portrush, conductor, and H. M. S. Catherwood, owner, were fined 12s 6d and 30s respectively for permitting overcrowding in a bus.

CHARABANC LICENSING.

In P. E. Greer's book, Road Versus Rail - 1982, he states:

A few years ago, one of our members inaugurated a charabanc service between Portstewart and Portrush, which was supported extensively by the travelling public, and it was because he succeeded in catering for, and supplying to the public at reasonable rates, a service which was much needed that the appeal for power to licence charabancs has been brought forward. The desire for this power emanated from these two councils, who have been prosecuting and persecuting this member, and using any and every means to put him off the road. Portstewart Urban Council issued sixteen summonses against him, but failed to succeed on any of them, the cause of complaints being utterly groundless, thus demonstrating the misuse such a council would make of further powers. There was no service between these two places until our member introduced it, only small cars being available at exorbitant rates. These two councils canvassed all the other councils and appealed to them to join them in demanding power to license and control charabancs.

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Website compiled by S. R. Henry, September 2004.

SB